An effective connection of a heavy duty truck trailer to a truck tractor, either directly or via another trailer, includes a multi-function electrical connection. The connection is made by use of a cable having multiple (preferably seven) wires within it and connectors at the ends of the cable. SAE J560 governs the functions of those wires and of the terminals in the plug-like connector moieties at the cable ends and in the corresponding socket-like connector moieties with which the cable-end connectors are mateable. SAE J560 also governs the relative positions, the geometries and the dimensions of those matable connector moieties. Pursuant to SAE J560, the cable-end moieties are defined as plugs having female contact terminals, and the other moieties (mounted to the tractors and the trailers) are defined as sockets having male contact terminals.
In use of those cables, they commonly are mated to the tractor sockets on a long term basis. When a tractor is not connected to a trailer, the cable remains connected to the tractor, and the cable (which commonly is self-coiling) and its other end connector are stored at the rear of the tractor. It is the connector at the rear (trailer) end of the cable which far more frequently is mated to and unmated from a trailer socket, and which has its terminals exposed to the environment when it is unmated from a trailer socket. That environment can be hostile to the wellbeing of those terminals. As a consequence, the terminals in the plug at the rear end of the cable can be degraded so that they do not make sound contact with trailer socket terminals and need to be repaired or replaced. Other events, such as inadvertent dragging of an unmated cable-end plug on a road surface, can damage the terminals in the plug.
Heretofore, the cable-end connector plugs have been designed, manufactured and assembled in ways which either make it difficult to repair damaged plug terminals or make it necessary to replace the entire cable with its connectors to achieve the desired correction. Plug terminal repairs (or replacements) are either difficult and time consuming or costly to accomplish. A need exists for a way to repair or replace damaged terminals in such cable-end plugs quickly, effectively and economically.